Unwrapping the Spiritual Gifts: Prophecy Illustrated by Peter (Part 1)

Unwrapping the Spiritual Gifts: Prophecy Illustrated by Peter (Part 2)

11th July 2010 (Youth Sunday)
1 Corinthians 9:20-23

Feed Our Spirits – Watch Us Grow

18th July 2010
Matthew 28

The Summons (Part 1)

The Summons (Part 2)

25th July 2010
John 20:21

So Send I You (Part 1)

So Send I You (Part 2)

First of all, the leadership team of XS & JXS would like take this opportunity to thank you for your support and understanding of JXS combined events with XS.

In the JXS, in general, the youths have been learning about various spiritual disciplines and gifts. Moreover, they have also been taught on Lordship of Christ besides counting the cost of following Him.

In addition, the JXS leadership team together with the respective teachers is planning to have a meet-the-parent session. We will keep you posted and hope to see you then.

At XS level, I thank the Lord for the desires of our youth to be more Word and Christ-centered. We have two combined cell meetings on the first two Saturdays of the month to foster closer bonds and fellowship. The XS leadership seeks to instill in youths their identity in Christ and in the process build their esteem and character. 

By the way, if you have relatives or neighbors who belong to any of these age categories: P6 to Sec 3 for JXS, Sec 4 and above for XS, feel free to invite them. It is our desire to see these young people grow to be more like Christ and be a people after God’s heart.

Finally, let’s pray together for our youths that they will continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ – to be God-fearing men and women who love the Lord and desire to offer Him their faithful service.

(For more information on recent activities, please refer our bi-monthly publication ‘XScalate’.)

~ Alex Lim, Youth Ministry Staff

ALPHA 9

Dear Charisians,

With the blessings from God, Alpha@Charis is successfully going into its 9th run! Through Alpha, we have managed to reach out to pre-believers and believers alike and helped them draw closer to our Father God.

To date, with Alpha, we have touched a total of 167 guests, amongst whom 27 have come to embrace Jesus and 35 have rededicated their lives to Him! This motivates us to go on touching more lives and we couldn’t have done it without your involvement!

The Alpha course is a 10 week course which explains what is Christianity in a non-threatening environment.

“There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called.” Ephesians 4:4

Join us once again as we begin our Alpha 9!  

Put your faith into action:

~ Ask God to reveal to you the people you should invite.

~ Invite your guests to attend the Introduction Dinner. It is free!

~ Attend the dinner with your guests.

Alpha Course has made evangelism so easy and non-threatening for pre-believers. Through your collective effort, we know that we can spread the joy of the Gospel to those around us whom we care and love. The Introduction Dinner for Alpha 9 is 31st July 2010, so hurry and invite your guests today!

~ Alpha Core Team (ACT)

CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER
(from the book ‘Companions in Christ’)
 
“My secret is very simple: I pray. Through prayer I become one in love with Christ realized that praying to Him is loving Him. The poor who live in the slums of the world are the suffering Christ… through them God shows me His true face. For me, prayer means being united to the will of God twenty-four hours a day, to live for Him, through Him and with Him.” (Mother Teresa)

Throughout twenty centuries of Christianity, various schools of spirituality have emphasized either action or contemplation (eg. Mary or Martha) while maintaining that both contemplation and action are integral components of Christian journey.

Do some Christians believe that contemplation is beyond them, reserved for only a few?

Many persons are unclear about the meaning of contemplative prayer. There is a subtle belief that to pray contemplatively, one has to be an otherworldly eccentric who experiences visions and other mystical phenomena. If you consider contemplative prayer as out of reach, it is time to look again at your understanding of this way of prayer.

In simple terms, contemplative prayer is “a way of making oneself aware of the presence of God who is always there”. It differs from meditation, which involves reasoning, words and images.

In true contemplative prayer, one abides in mystery, open to being taken by God in love along a way one cannot know. Throughout the history of Christianity, spiritual guides have regarded contemplative prayer as an encounter with the “unknowing”. Because intuition and awareness rather than thinking are central to this experience, such prayer tends to be unitive: we find ourselves — our true selves — in God.

“Only when we are able to ‘let go’ of everything within us, all desire to see, to know, to taste and to experience the presence of God, do we truly become able to experience that presence with the overwhelming conviction and reality that revolutionize our entire inner life.” (Thomas Merton)

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How you can participate in prayer?
1. Join the twice-monthly prayer meetings on 1st Wednesday and 3rd Friday of every month at 8pm in the Chapel.
2. Come for the weekly Sunday prayer sessions held at 8.30am in Room 201 or at 11.15 am in Room 304.
3. You can be a prayer intercessor through email, by signing up for: Charisians Praying group.
To find out more please approach Janet Lee or Sin Lee, or email to slyou@singtel.com.

When an individual is saved, he becomes a member of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13, 27) together with other members of the body. But when one puts himself under the membership of a church, he is committed to the purposes of that particular church which generally include – instruction of God’s Word (1 Timothy 4:13; 2 Timothy 4:2), serving one another through the proper use of spiritual gifts (Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-31; 1 Peter 4:10-11), administering the sacraments (Luke 22:19; Acts 2:42), and proclaiming the gospel to those who are lost (Matthew 28:18-20). In addition, when one becomes a member of a church, he submits himself to the care and the authority of the biblically qualified shepherds that God has placed in that church.

Biblical Basis for Church Membership
Although the Scriptures do not contain any explicit command to formally join and be a member of a local church, the biblical foundation for church membership permeates the New Testament. This biblical basis can be seen most clearly in (1) the early church and (2) the church government.

1) Example of the early church- In the early church, when one received Christ, one becomes a member of the universal church. Believers were baptized and added to the church (Acts 2:41, 47; 5:14; 16:5). More than simply living out a private commitment to Christ, they joined together formally with other believers in a local assembly and devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42). Also notice that the epistles of the New Testament were written to churches spread across the known world, thus the New Testament epistles themselves demonstrate the assumption that believers would be committed to a local assembly in their area.

2) Existence of church government – The consistent pattern throughout the New Testament is that it is the responsibility of the shepherds to oversee the local body of believers. The specific duties given to church leaders are: to shepherd God’s people.  (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2); to labor diligently among them (1 Thessalonians 5:12); to have charge over them (1 Thessalonians 5:12; 1 Timothy 5:17); and to keep watch over their souls (Hebrews 13:17). The shepherds need to give an account to God for the individuals allotted to their charge (Hebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 5:3). However, leaders can shepherd the people and give an account to God for their spiritual well-being only if they know who they are; they can provide oversight only if they know those for whom they are responsible; and they can fulfill their duty to shepherd the flock only if they know who is part of the flock. The leaders of a church cannot be responsible for the spiritual well-being of every individual who visits the church or who attends sporadically. They can only be responsible for those who have submitted themselves to the care and the authority of the leaders, and this is done through church membership.

I recently realized the importance of this fact as I was asked to link up with some members of Charis whom we have not seen for awhile. Whilst talking with them, I was able to understand their whereabouts and spiritual wellbeing, thus creating opportunities for pastoral care and follow up. If they are non-members, who would be responsible to care for them? Would a newly appointed pastor who does not know them personally be able to care for them if not for a membership list which enables him to contact them?

Final Words
There are some who say that as long as they are committed Christians, there is no need for that “piece of paper” (membership). Church membership is not a piece of paper; it is not a country club membership card; it is not a discount coupon; it is not a passport to greater privileges. These are thwarted views of church membership. Church membership is really about being part of a family and being accountable. Yes, indeed we are in the family of Christ universally with God as our Father and Christ as our head, but notice that the body of Christ is the church (Ephesians 1:22-23), and the church is the physical representation of God on earth. Why then should we not be a part of it? If one would argue that he is a committed Christian, then what’s to stop him from being committed to a local church, to be her member and pledge to serve her God’s given cause and vision? If he is not convinced to be a member of his present church, then go ahead and be a member of a church where he feels belonged, where he believes God is calling him to.  Rather than be an unaccounted non-member, he should be a formal member of a church so that there is accountability and a visible commitment to God’s call and direction for that church.

In conclusion, membership matters.

~ Ps Andy Goh

Unwrapping the Spiritual Gifts: Gift of Exhortation (Part 1)

Unwrapping the Spiritual Gifts: Gift of Exhortation (Part 2)

13th June 2010 (Bible Society Sunday)
Joshua 1: 1-11

Be Strong and Courageous – Defining Church Leaders (Part 1)

Be Strong and Courageous – Defining Church Leaders (Part 2)

20th June 2010 (Father’s Day)
1 Corinthians 12: 1-11

Unwrapping the Spiritual Gifts: Gift of Teaching

27th June 2010
1 Corinthians 12:1-4, 7-11, John 5:1-17

Unwrapping the Spiritual Gifts: Healing (Part 1)

Unwrapping the Spiritual Gifts: Healing (Part 2)

On 11th to 14th June 2010, the Junior and Senior sections of the 17th company had a combined camp in Loyang Secondary School. On the first day, we started with a rock wall climbing session. Only a handful of people who had the strength and determination were able to scale the wall with success. This was followed by a sermonette “Ball of Many Colors” by our sponsoring church’s pastor, Rev Tan-Yeo Lay Suan on some of the colors of the World Cup that represented the Lord and His attributes.

The next day, after breakfast, we took a bus to Pasir Ris Park for our Student Officer Interaction (S.O.I.). However, it began to rain heavily before we could play our baseball and rugby games. As a result, the entire company had to rush and squeeze into one shelter in the park! We then began to sing one of the newly learnt songs, “Christ in the Vessel”, to ‘chase’ the rain away. The rain eventually subsided and we carried on with our exciting games.

After returning from the park, instead of the usual packed lunch, we had to cook our own instant noodles and canned food. It was the kind of experience when we have to “fend” for ourselves with little or no modern day conveniences. However, the food tasted as good when cooked at home. After dinner, we had campfire at our school’s car park, which was also attended by some parents. During the campfire, the company sang some songs, did our squad cheers and played fun games through the night.

The third day, we went to an open field in Sengkang to do an activity which we never did before as a company: kite flying. It was interesting to do such an “old school” activity in an era of information technology. After we were taught how to assemble and fly the kite, we immediately moved to our designated “flying” areas as we were so excited to fly them. It was, in fact, not as easy to get the kite flying. However, when the kites did fly, we were happily mad as hatter! It was strangely mesmerizing to see them flying in the sky. We were fortunate to have such an opportunity to experience activities such as kite flying.

After lunch, we geared ourselves for Combat Skirmish. The company played through three missions such as the all time favorite Team Death match and the risky Elimination. These games brought out the inner Counter Strike players within us and we all had a blast, despite the accidental friendly fires and heavy weight guns! Even the officers joined in the fun, making the missions more challenging for us to accomplish!

Before we knew it, it was the last day of camp. It was a little disappointing that time flew when we were having fun, but there is always next year’s camp to look forward to!